Woke TV Host Pushes Radical College Sports Boycott Over Identity Politics

Liberty Check

• Far-left TV personality encourages young athletes to sacrifice college opportunities for political activism
• NAACP campaign targets conservative states, weaponizing sports to influence redistricting battles
• Supreme Court ruling on race-based congressional districts sparks activist retaliation against public universities

A co-host of ABC’s “The View” sparked controversy Wednesday by endorsing a campaign urging Black athletes to boycott public universities in states where civil rights activists claim political representation is being diminished. The radical proposal asks young people to forfeit educational and financial opportunities in service of a partisan political agenda.

Sunny Hostin voiced support for the NAACP’s “Out of Bounds” campaign, which the organization announced Tuesday. While acknowledging the significant personal sacrifice involved, Hostin suggested economic pressure could drive political outcomes favorable to progressive interests.

“I think there has to be strategy,” Hostin said. “I mean, you know, athletes have been involved in protests and politics for a long time.”

She invoked historical examples of athlete activism but conceded the vastly different circumstances facing today’s college players.

“Remember the Olympics and you had John Carlos and you had Muhammad Ali, but these were athletes that were established already. These college athletes stand to get a free education. They stand to make money because of the NIL now, so I think it is asking a lot. But, I think it’s economic damage and economic harm has longtime been a very effective tool in the civil rights movement.”

The campaign targets schools primarily in the SEC and ACC within states including Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia. The effort represents pushback against the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling on race-based congressional districts—a decision that civil rights organizations oppose.

Hostin attempted to downplay the campaign’s reach, claiming it would only affect 13 schools and that elite athletes would have “a lot of other choices.” She cited an example from Ole Miss where a running back named Kylin Hill threatened to sit out unless Mississippi changed its state flag, which eventually happened.

“And I would suggest that if you think about Ole Miss, there was, I think a running back…. His name was Kylin Hill. He played at Ole Miss. You know, Ole Miss brings in a lot of money. He vowed not to play unless the state changed the Confederate flag. The Confederate flag came down months later. Because college sports brings in so much money,” Hostin said.

Even Hostin’s fellow co-hosts expressed reservations about the proposal. Joy Behar remarked that “it is young people who change the world” when discussing potential resistance, but stopped short of full endorsement.

Alyssa Farah Griffin called the campaign a “very good idea” while expressing concern that it placed “too much onus on the young people who did not create the problem” of redistricting. Whoopi Goldberg was more skeptical, questioning whether the boycott represented the most effective path forward.

“I think it’s really going to become a case-by-case basis because I don’t know how many schools we’re talking about. I don’t know how many athletes we’re talking about and I don’t know this is the best way. It can be part of a bigger picture but I don’t know if this is the only way to go,” Goldberg said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed the boycott Tuesday, aligning themselves with the activist campaign.

The proposal asks young athletes—many from economically disadvantaged backgrounds—to sacrifice life-changing educational and financial opportunities to advance a political cause shaped by partisan redistricting battles. Critics argue this weaponizes vulnerable young people in service of adult political disputes.

Americans deserve better.